EDITORIAL

It is with great satisfaction that we make public the first issue of the Journal Trabalho, Educação e Saúde; the editors' objective is to contribute to the construction of an interdisciplinary medium connecting the areas mentioned in the title.

It is important to note that this editorial policy faces a series of historical obstacles, not least the fact that Education and Health, as academic fields, have been developed around different types of problems, theories and approaches. It is our consensual view that the historical role of a scientific periodical is much greater than the mere diffusion of knowledge; even being fully aware of the limits and possibilities of a project of such magnitude, we believe it could, indeed, become an effective praxis for the construction of science.

As conceptual guidelines for this scientific periodical we have the belief in the construction of models in which ideas should not be dominated by the fetish of a closed totality, by an alienated social life and by the various forms that domination takes in our times. These models should avoid both the extreme and the complementary illusions of an objectified world that has no fissures and of a full subjectivity, isolated from reality and supposedly provider of meaning for the world.

The journal is divided into sections - Essay, Articles, Debate, Account of an Experience, Reviews and Interview. The essay follows the model advocated by Theodor Adorno in which it is defined as a critical form, of ample theoretical reach, putting on their guard those who defend a supposed scientific objectivity, where the study of an object should result in closed and conclusive affirmations. Entitled "Education through Image and Other Mirages" André Bueno's essay analyses the contemporary forms of capitalism and the weakening of the critical tradition.

"Notes on Work and Sacrifice" is the title of José Leon Crochík's text. Here the author reflects upon work and looks at a series of concepts related to it, such as praxis, sacrifice, domination and adaptation. As Mr. Crochík points out, these are notes on the issue of education through work inspired by the Critical Theory of Society and more precisely by texts of Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno and Herbert Marcuse.

The two articles "To educate the productive worker/citizen or the emancipated human being?" by Gaudêncio Frigotto and Maria Ciavatta and "Is a Pedagogy of Counter-Hegemonic Competencies Possible? The relationship between pedagogy of competencies, constructivism and neo-pragmatism" written by Marise Nogueira Ramos, deal with issues directly related to workers' education. In the former, the authors clarify terms and concepts such as productive worker, citizenship and productive citizen, normally used as basic notions in the scenario drawn in the past decades by the collision between capital and labour, and how they operate in the educational field. In the latter, Ms. Nogueira deals with the difficulties presented by the Pedagogy of Competencies, with the possibilities it has of becoming a counter-hegemonic instrument for the workers' professional training and the limitations that prevent it from doing so.

Marina Peduzzi, in the article entitled "Technological Changes and their impact on the Work Process in the area of Health" reflects upon the transformations that have taken place in the area of health work. As background, she deals with the recent transformations in the labour world and the present coexistence of sectors of production with different - old and new - labour modalities.

Cristina Araripe Ferreira's study "Conceptions of scientific initiation at the secondary level: a research proposal" encourages us to reflect upon the academic orientation and scientific initiation of secondary level students. The article brings to light the peculiarity of the issues resulting from an innovative practice that has not yet been fully adopted by the school network.

In the section Accounts, where we focus on reflections about implemented training practices, we look at the Programme of Professional Training for Workers in the Area of Nursing (PROFAE) from the perspective of situations developed in the state of Minas Gerais.

The section Debate contains, in this first issue, an author's dialogue with his work. It covers two texts written by Dermeval Saviani: the first, written in 1987, and the second, consisting of the author's own impressions when he 'revisits' the former text. The central issue in both articles is the conception of Polytechnic.

The interview with Prof. Lucie Tanguy, sociologist, and researcher at the National Centre of Scientific Research at the Paris University - Nanterre, is a very relevant contribution for a reflection on workers' professional training. This is particularly so due to the high standards of French academic production and of its theoretical debates in the area.

In this issue, the reader will also have at his/her disposal reviews of three books relevant for the discussions taking place in the areas of Work, Education and Health.

Last but not least, we turn to the section Memory, in which Luiz Fernando Ferreira contributes to the struggle against social and historical oblivion by rescuing, in the form of a chronicle, stories from the life of Joaquim Venâncio, a health worker and a very important protagonist in the history of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation.

By articulating our memory's work and the memory of work with the current production of scientific knowledge, we hope to create an important vehicle for the diffusion and legitimation of this knowledge - no doubt a social one, fruit of the work of various generations.

The Editors

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  06 Nov 2012
• Date of issue
  Mar 2003